Page:Lieutenant and Others (1915) by Sapper.djvu/52

 trenches, did a man but show his hat opposite them it was riddled with bullets.

Wherefore, after a couple of the remnants of the platoon had ill-advisedly shown their hats with their heads inside them, and a second later had subsided with a choking grunt and a final kick, the survivors confined their attention to the bottom of the trench, and from it sorted out the bombs and the flares and the reserve ammunition. Also they sorted out other things, which we need not specify, and threw them out behind, where in time perhaps they might be decently buried. And then, having done all they could, they sat down with their backs to the parapet and hoped for the best. It was not till half-past eight that night that the German artillery condescended to notice them again, and then for about ten minutes they put a desultory fire of shrapnel on to the trenches. Then the range lengthened.

Now Gerald was no fool, and suddenly the words of the sapper captain in the morning rang through his brain. “They may make a small local advance under cover of dark.” It was almost dark: they had shelled the